Government has appointed Girish Chandra Murmu as new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. He will replace Rajiv Mehrishi who superannuated on Thursday.

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Murmu got in a headline last October when he was appointed first Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. However, on the first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370, he resigned and now been given charge of another constitutional authority. He will primarily be entrusted with the responsibility to audit the accounts and related activities of the three tiers of Government – Federal, Provincial and Local; the State-owned public sector commercial enterprises; and autonomous bodies financed by the Federal and Provincial Governments. His reports are laid before the Parliament and Legislatures of the Provinces. CAG reports are laid in the Parliament and State assemblies.

Murmu is 1985 batch Indian Administrative Service Officer (IAS) of Gujarat cadre. Born in 1959, he opted voluntary retirement from the post of Expenditure Secretary last year. A post-graduate in Political Science, Murmu was instrumental in preparing economic package in 2015, announced by the Prime Minister. During April 2008 to August, he served as Additional Principal Secretary to then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi. Later when Anandi Ben Patel became CM after Modi elevated to the Prime Ministre, Murmu became Principal Secretary to CM.

A man of few words, Murmu got a big task on the expenditure management front, when the economy was slowing down, and there were many allegations about the delay of payments. Murmu used to take a daily meeting with officials of the Finance Ministry and other Ministries and tried to sort-out the problem. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, herself, acknowledged his effort on the public forum.

 

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